[TBrum]

Thanks guys - just making use of my time alone here!

Building has become my new form of therapy and man do I need a lot of that!!

I leave here at 5:00am Sunday morning to go get the family from my in-laws... so, that leaves me 31hrs and 21minutes to build and fly (with a few hours of sleep thrown in).

Ok... more therapy required

[scaleguy]

Originally Posted by Dennis 9412

Trevor, all kidding aside, I have to say this.....

My hat's off to you my friend, you are a true craftsman!!

I spend more time thinking about building an airplane than you do building it!!

DITTO!

I'm with you on that one Dennis. You and I are alike... we mull and mulll and when it's done we still aren't happy and think we should do it a different way. That's why it takes me a year to do an ARF!

Me thinks my Extra might be takin a roadtrip soon!

[TBrum]

In parallel with the wings and stab work, over the past week I've also been slowly plugging away on the rest of the foam sheeting.

Since I'm going to start back on the fuse, the next pieces required are the belly components and the rudder.

Rudder still needs to be edge sanded.

A little trick from Mr Steve Johnston is to glue down the 1/16" balsa strips on the belly cores before sheeting. That way, when the sheeting goes on the cores, it overlaps the strips and eliminates a visible glue joint



Now onto the fuse belly.....

[TBrum]

Ok, this is one of the coolest design changes to the new 43%ers. Gone are those nasty, poorly fitting, heavy belly 1/4 panels that used to go on each side of the motorbox.

Denis is really proud of this change and I applaud him for it - the belly is now two peices, but the entire front section is cut to wrap around the motorbox

It's a little scary when you start the cutty-cutty, because you know that one false move and you'll be ordering a new belly core! Luckily, I used the "measure twice, cut once" rule and all worked out.

Tomorrow if flying is rained out, I'll put on the rear belly section and finish off around the tailwheel.

[13404]

"A little trick from Mr Steve Johnston is to glue down the 1/16" balsa strips on the belly cores before sheeting. That way, when the sheeting goes on the cores, it overlaps the strips and eliminates a visible glue joint"

I was doing pretty good at following the build up to this point. Very interesting so far. Could you please clarify where the strips of Balsa go.

On another note, my plan is to order a kit in early spring. I won't have time to build until March anyway due to work obligations. Work always seems to get in the way of fun. Actually, I love my job.

I'll be in touch for help at that point.

Brendan

[TBrum]

Originally Posted by AirDog

"A little trick from Mr Steve Johnston is to glue down the 1/16" balsa strips on the belly cores before sheeting. That way, when the sheeting goes on the cores, it overlaps the strips and eliminates a visible glue joint"

I was doing pretty good at following the build up to this point. Very interesting so far. Could you please clarify where the strips of Balsa go.

On another note, my plan is to order a kit in early spring. I won't have time to build until March anyway due to work obligations. Work always seems to get in the way of fun. Actually, I love my job.

I'll be in touch for help at that point.

Brendan

Hey Brendan! Great to hear you are going to do a build!

Sorry that my explanation was a little vague!!

* You'll see on the drawings that there is a 1/16" x 3/4" balsa strip between the fuse sides and the foam cores of the turtledeck/belly pan.
* The normal process is to sheet the cores, then sand the sheeting off flush with the edge of the core. After that is done, you then glue on the 1/16" strips to your sheeted core and let dry. Once dry, you can then glue the belly pan or t-deck onto the fuse sides. If you think about it, that makes 2 glue joints that you then have to sand (one on each side of the 1/16" sheeting like the drawings show).
* What I do (thanks to SJ) is first glue the 1/16" strip onto the naked foam core. Once it is dried, I then sheet the core with the strip already attached and sand the sheeting flush with the bottom of the strip (now one joint is covered by the sheeting).
* When you glue the belly pan or turtledeck onto the sides of the fuse, this only produces one joint then.
* The added benefit is that the 1/16" strip is also glued to the sheeting so the bond between the t-deck/bellypan and the fuse is stronger.

It makes a big difference in terms of sanding and it's those small details that give it that extra touch after it's covered and sparkling in the sun!!

Hope that helps... if it's still not clear, I'll try to explain it better.


Cheers

Trev

[wingburner]

Originally Posted by Dennis 9412

Doesn't he just PI$$ YOU OFF, Jack?

The guy makes it look soooooo damned easy!

This one will be a keeper, Jack!!

Regards,

Dennis

He does PI$$ me off, but in a good way

Thx, it will definitely be a keeper Dennis.

I am simply amazed at Trevor's skills

[TBrum]

Brendan! Even better - post #21 on this page shows you a few pictures of what I'm talking about from my 35% Extra 330 build thread. The 35%ers use 1/8" thick strips, but still same concept.

https://www.rccanada.ca/rccforum/show...agstaff&page=3

[TBrum]

Thanks Jack, but you've gotta chalk most of the progress up to the kit - this 43%er is truely a jem of a kit to work on.

Oh, and next time you get my wife on the phone, you'll need to thank her and the boys for being away for the week, because it really allowed me to accelerate the build a lot.



If all goes well, we'll be ready for covering by the second week of January!!!!

[13404]

Thanks Trevor, I see it now.

Sorry to have held you up responding to this.

With all of these little tricks you have accumulated, you really are the master of the Carden kits.

Brendan